Film begins showing a passenger train moving through landscape, empty except for some cattle grazing. The setting is Texas, the United States, during World War 2. A young boy is on the train, wearing a a British school uniform (or possibly Norwegian school uniform), with short pants. He sits with his knees up, reading a book about the American West. Other books about the West are on his seat. Scenes from movies of the West that are in the boys mind are shown. They show vintage western film reenactments of stage coaches being defended; cowboys riding en masse; cowboys fighting Native American Indians; teams of horses pulling stage coaches; gun fights in various places; exterior of the "Last Chance Saloon"; and a cowboy riding a bucking horse in a saloon. As the train arrives at his destination, the boy readies and leaves the train. A man in a 10 gallon hat meets him and shakes his hand. Camera pans over landscape containing a single ranch or farm house. The boy is seen running all around the property. A tractor pulls a disc cultivator over some of the land. Now dressed in a western hat and long pants, his host takes him to meet one of the ranch hands who is working on an automobile. They walk by a man driving a tractor. Next they visit a man shoeing a horse. They wave at some men using hand tools to cultivate some crop. They walk past a tall windmill. Cattle are seen grazing in a field. After their exploration, the Host sits on a porch as the boy reads more information in a book. Another view of grazing cattle. A lone cowboy on a horse looks over the land.
British World War 2 film (described as the equivalent of the U.S. wartime film "Know Your Ally, Britain"). Film opens showing 19th Century animated map of the United States. It traces the development of the railroads in the U.S. It shows rail lines reaching the Missouri River by the year 1860. (Narrator states this took 250 years to happen.) But in another 10 years, the map shows the Union Pacific and other rail lines extending two the West Coast, and U.S. commerce shifting, from North-South movement, to East-West (with an animated steam locomotive moving across the map). Chicago is highlighted as the greatest railway junction in the world (the "Piccadilly Circus" as the British narrator describes it). View of a 19th century steam locomotive pulling a freight railroad train in the desert Western U.S. Views of the arid Western parts of the U.S. Group of Native American Indians watching a train pass. Construction supplies being offloaded from a train. A wind-driven water pump. Buffalo herds affected by the railroads. Wire fencing installed to control cattle on large Western ranches. large teams of horses pulling 19th century wheat harvesting machinery. Views of wheat grains being poured. Cattle in the high country. Views of Chicago stock yards. A man marking on a Board of Trade chalk board, the prices of farm commodities. Various views of steam locomotives pulling trains throughout the rail network, including some 20th century trains near the end of the film.
Aftermath of Pearl Harbor attack. An animation shows a map of Japan as a fictional character Tojo makes a call from Tokyo to Nagasaki and other cities disseminating the news of Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. He rejoices at the attack. The United States Navy ship Arizona capsized. Wreckage of damaged ships like Nevada, West Virginia, California. Navy personnel along with civil technicians start the salvage of United States ships. Men work on the ships. Ships like California, Nevada and West Virginia underway after repair. Sailors and supplies aboard the ships. Military preparations in United States to counter the Japanese attack. (World War II period).
U.S. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt arrives in Arthurdale, West Virginia. View of new houses in the area built through US government New Deal programs. Roosevelt seated with other officials in a car. He arrives to inspect one of the government's new rural settlement communities. People gather on a road of the rural town. Roosevelt seated in his car and talking to people who have gathered around, including men, women, and children. A boy nearby wearing a Boy Scout uniform. President Roosevelt makes a joke as he pets the nose of a steer, saying that "it's what people call a West Virginia moose." A family poses for the camera on a porch. The people laugh. Scene changes to Roosevelt addressing people in a hall, as the graduation speaker for the local high school in Arthurdale. He speaks about the new tax bill (the Revenue Act of 1938), saying "At midnight tonight, this new tax bill automatically will become law. But it will become law without my signature or my approval." Scene changes to a dance. The First Lady of the United States, Anna Eleanor Roosevelt enjoys a square dance in a dance hall. Men playing musical instruments including guitar and banjo, and a caller calls out the changing moves of the dance as Mrs. Roosevelt and others dance.
The Ford Plant in Detroit. Panorama of Ford Plants. Workers and automobiles outside a Ford Plant. Imperial Mine, Michigamme, Michigan. Ford iron ore mine buildings. Ford coal mines, Nuttallburg and Twin Branch, West Virginia. Kentenia, Pond Creek and Stone, Kentucky. West Virginia, supplies a low volatile smokeless coal. Coal mine and homes. Railroad coal cars drawn by locomotives. Lumber Iron Mountain and Sidnaw, Michigan. Lumbering Operations. Workers and automobile assembly line. Waste metal baled and melted with other metal. By adding this scrap steel greater strength obtained.
U.S. battleships underway in Hampton Roads, United States. The battleships underway at sea in a column formation. The battleships include USS Tennessee, USS West Virginia, USS Idaho and USS California.
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